


blaze in red or flames

by i_was_human



Category: Lost in Translation (Webcomic)
Genre: 2mindae are brothers, Angst, Character Death, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Non-Linear Narrative, Soldiers, Team as Family, no die we men like beta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26262097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_was_human/pseuds/i_was_human
Summary: It starts like this.(it ends like this.)"You're going to the top team, MAYHEM. Lucky for you, they just got an opening."("dongho!")
Relationships: Ahn Jaewon | Wyld & Kang Dongho | D.Min, Ahn Jaewon | Wyld & Kim Daehyun, Kang Dongho | D.Min & Kim Daehyun & Lee Minsoo
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	blaze in red or flames

vi.

It ends like this.

Dongho staggers to his feet, hand pressed to the gaping hole in his side and gaze fixed on the distant stream of light.

Someone has to turn it off.

"Hyung," and it's a broken plea, Daehyun's jagged-glass voice floating across the space between them, "hyung, hyung, please."

Dongho bends down on shaking legs and pulls the hair tie from his hair, pressing it into Daehyun's hand as hard as he can. "I'm never really leaving," he whispers, and Daehyun nods, eyes wide and wet. "I will always, _always_ be watching out for you. 'kay?"

"No," Daehyun begs, gripping his hand with all the fervent strength of the dying. "No, no, hyung, no, no-"

"I love you," Dongho breathes, pushing Daehyun's hair back and tying it into a small bun. "Always."

"No-"

Before Daehyun can react, Dongho sprints towards the bomb, eyes screwed shut as Daehyun's screams ring in his ears. 

_"Dongho!"_

1\. 

It starts like this.

"You're getting assigned," the captain - a man with greasy hair and a greasier smile - tells him, lips curled into a smile that promises nothing more than misery. "You're going to the top team - MAYHEM. Lucky for you, they just got an opening."

Jaewon's smart enough to know that _opening_ means _death_ , so he doesn't comment on it.

"They were a pretty tight-knit group," the man hums, "so have fun with that. I expect you to work well together."

Translation: you _will_ work well together.

Jaewon simply nodes, and hopes the man can't see the fear racing down his spine. 

v. 

It goes like this.

Missions get harder and more dangerous, and Dongho pulls his little brothers in and holds them tight (because they'll always be little to him, even if Daehyun's taller and Minsoo's got a fire in his gut to rival a dragon's). 

Their completion rate attracts attention - good and bad - and soon enough, a boy with black hair and narrow eyes messages Minsoo claiming to be his brother, and asking if they could _please meet, it won't take long, I just want to explain_.

And Minsoo, Minsoo with the hole in his heart and the cracks in his smile, agrees.

It's their day off when Dongho and Daehyun get the alert, and there's no words exchanged as they lace up their boots, gathering their equipment for yet another dangerous mission.

It's just the two of them.

It'll be enough.

(it has to be.)

2\. 

It goes like this.

Jaewon arrives at their dorms, and Minsoo nearly slams the door in his face.

It's Daehyun that intervenes - broken, tear-stained Daehyun, with his non-regulation hair tied up in a bright red hair tie - and pushes Minsoo out of the way, eyes gentle and shattered and _grieving_.

"You knew this had to happen," he whispers, and it's little more than a breath, coming out as soft and light as the younger man's steps. "You knew."

Minsoo sucks in a breath, air whistling between his teeth, and Jaewon flinches as the man shoves past him, eyes glassy and nails digging into his palms.

"What-"

"Let him go," Daehyun murmurs, and it's like seeing a movie in black-and-white as he pads back into the dorm. "Nobody ever stays."

He's not talking about this.

iv.

It goes like this.

The day Daehyun graduates, they join the same squad. 

They name themselves MAYHEM, paint their jackets bright red and their guns with red slashes, and Minsoo and Daehyun get their ears pierced, crystals swinging from their lobes.

Dongho doesn't comment.

People are willing to overlook a lot, he finds, as long as you get results, and MAYHEM gets results.

They're _good_.

(they're soldiers, bred for war.

they have to be.)

Dongho grows his hair out, ties it back with the same red hair tie, and he leads his team to more and more victories, racking up a success rate to rival the top squads.

There are never any casualties.

(he won't let there be. not his brothers. not his family.)

3\. 

It goes like this.

Jaewon slowly integrates himself into MAYHEM's framework, slowly carves out a place amidst the others' grief. 

He doesn't understand it, but he respects it.

People lose friends all the time in this business - he's lost many, and grieved for them - but never has it so truly decimated anyone quite like he's seeing here.

Still.

The day TEMPLE get back to base, he dyes his hair. 

Nari goads him into a bright crimson - MAYHEM's trademark, she claims, a celebration of his promotion - and Taehyuk and Junsu approve, drunken and jovial.

Or, well. Nari and Taehyuk are jovial. Junsu has exactly two moods - bitchy and nonchalant.

Still, Jaewon dyes his hair red.

He doesn't understand why, when Daehyun first sees it, he bursts into tears. 

(doesn't understand why daehyun always calls him jaewon-ssi, never hyung.

doesn't understand daehyun.)

iii.

It goes like this.

Dongho graduates, and pours himself into gaining experience as he waits for his brothers.

Minsoo works hard and propels himself up in the rankings, _push-push-pushing_ for the chance to be in the same squad as Dongho.

And Daehyun-

Daehyun, the tiny, naive kid that he still is, follows as best he can.

He's small, seeming even smaller now that Dongho's almost six foot, and whenever they remind him of it, he pouts in a way that's undeniably childish, folding his arms over his chest like a toddler.

It's cute.

It's cute, and Dongho hates thinking that this kid is made to be a weapon.

Daehyun squirrels photographs away, hides them in a shoebox and hides that shoebox... somewhere. Dongho doesn't dwell on it.

It's cute, seeing how much he loves taking pictures.

(it's horrible, thinking that he could be something better.)

4.

It goes like this.

His first mission with MAYHEM is alright.

It's no train-wreck disaster like he anticipated - Daehyun and Minsoo know their shit - but it's not as great as he hoped.

Not helping with that fact was the fact that Daehyun kept almost crying.

Still. It went alright, nothing special, nothing horrible, and when they're sitting in the ship to go back to HQ, Daehyun leans against Minsoo's shoulder, toying with the red band in his hands.

"You did good," Minsoo murmurs, reaching up to run a hand through Daehyun's hair, and he bursts into tears, pressing his face into the older man's shoulder.

Jaewon tries not to listen, but as always, he hears things regardless.

_"I miss him. I miss him. Why did he go?"_

_"I know. I'm sorry."_

ii.

It goes like this.

Dongho meets another kid - a tiny kid of four, with chubby cheeks and bright eyes - and their little circle of _unwanted_ turns into something _wanted_.

Daehyun's bright, energetic, lively, and being around him makes Dongho feel alive. He bounces off the walls, squishing Dongho's cheeks like they're play-dough, and he strings sentences together like he's plucking the stars from the sky.

Minsoo loves him.

Dongho can understand why.

It swells in his chest - this need to _protect_ , to _brother_ , to _care for_ \- and he doesn't understand what it is, yet, but he gives it his own name.

_Brothers._

Minsoo and Daehyun are his brothers, and Dongho's going to protect them for as long as he can.

That's what brothers are for, isn't it?

5.

It goes like this.

Jaewon's in the attic, looking for an old mission report - HQ wants clarification, and Daehyun and Minsoo aren't going to do it - when he nearly trips over a beaten-up box, sitting on its side with the flaps nearly open.

Jaewon pushes it upright and pulls it open, gaze immediately flitting over the contents.

Clothes. Some assorted papers written in an almost calligraphic script. A shoebox.

A shoebox?

He pulls the shoebox open, and photos spill into his lap.

Torn, stained, shredded - they're relics of grief - and he sifts through them before landing on one that's almost completely intact.

Daehyun stands in the center, Minsoo leaning against his side with a bright smile on his face. And next to him-

an unfamiliar, dark-haired man.

Jaewon looks through the rest of the photographs, each time noting the presence of the dark-haired man, and it's only when he sees a photo of the man grinning wearily at the camera, blood trickling down his cheek and hair tied back with a red hair tie that he understands. 

_"They were a pretty tight-knit group."_

He didn't replace a soldier.

He replaced a brother. 

i.

It starts like this.

One unwanted kid walks up to another unwanted kid during play hours, and sticks out one pudgy hand, lips curled into a dangerously hoping grin.

"Do you want to play?"

And the second kid, eyes wide and smile tentative, takes it.

"Sure!"

6.

It ends like this.

The next mission goes fucking disastrously.

Jaewon stares up at the clouds, tears stinging his eyes, and he presses a hand to the gash in his chest, choking on a laugh when his fingers come away bloody.

They made the objective, at least.

"Hey," he whispers, head swirling somewhere in the stratosphere.

"...hey."

"What... what was he like? The person I replaced?"

Daehyun sniffs from somewhere near him, and Jaewon blinks, slow and beleaguered. "Hyung... hyung was amazing. Dongho-hyung. He... he was my brother."

Jaewon nods, slow and jerky. "...mm..."

"He... he was so brave..." Daehyun whispers, and Jaewon nods, head throbbing.

"He must be... must be lonely... huh?"

A tear rolls down his cheek and lands in the dirt, and he stares up at the sky, lips curling into a crooked smile.

"I'll... I'll keep him company for you... okay?"

"What?"

Something crunches next to his head, and Jaewon stares into the sky, tears leaking down his cheeks. "Until... until you can... can join him."

It's hard to breathe.

"I'll... I'll keep him company... 'kay? So you... you can stop... stop crying..."

Pressure on his hand.

"Hyung," Daehyun gasps, and Jaewon tilts his head to the side, the simple movement taking an impossible amount of effort.

"Ah... you called me... called me hyung. I... I'm so happy. So..."

" _Jaewon!_ "

vii/7.

It starts like this.

"You're Jaewon?"

He raises his head, gaze landing on a head of dark hair, and he smiles.

"I promised Daehyun-ah and Minsoo-hyung I'd keep you company, Dongho-ssi."

Dongho smiles - soft and fleeting - and takes a seat in the endless field. "C'mon. Sit down. We've got a while to wait."

Jaewon does, and he can't help but feel like this is _home_.

**Author's Note:**

> ...dongho as ayano from kagerou project
> 
> that's what inspired this au
> 
> i feel like i didn't give it enough attention, but it's 11:30 pm and i'm tired so i wanted to get this out
> 
> yes that ending with jaewon saying he'll keep dongho company is from [twitter](https://twitter.com/95wyld/status/1300957881748066307) hush i am Trash and i wanna do this
> 
> also lowkey @jamlessgenius message me i wanna chat abt a collab
> 
> title from jubyphonic's additional memory cover
> 
> [twit](https://twitter.com/i_was_human_) | [lit fic discord!](https://discord.gg/CNunB74)


End file.
